12 August 2007

Objectives are for wimps/ Guy Murphy, JWT Worldwide Planning Director

Objectives are for wimps

Guy Murphy JWT Worldwide Planning Director makes a case for spending more time defining objectives before getting into strategy discussions.

“ Why do we spend so little time thinking about the objective for communication? And why, instead, do we plunge so quickly into strategy?” he asks. “Having an objective tells us how to evaluate strategy. It also tells us how to judge levels of success. But most fundamentally, having the right objective means you have properly defined the problem and are therefore more likely to be successful.

I will always remember the tale of the tomato farmer whose tomato farming machinery was too big to pick the tomatoes. But instead of defining the problem as having the wrong machinery (and having to spend millions to upgrade), he defined the problem as not growing big enough tomatoes (needing only minor investment). A problem well defined is an objective well understood.So, if it is so important, why do we not talk much about objectives?”

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